“Lady Phoebe returned to London a short time ago. She has not been in Society for more than three or four weeks complete.”
“Three or four weeks…”
Sebastian tapped his pen on the date at the top of the page.
“If Lady Phoebe only returned to town a short while ago, is it possible that two months ago, Lord Birchwood was just arranging the marriage pact with Lord Tripleton?”
The thought was conceivable.
The timeline fell into place almost seamlessly.
But these details about Lady Phoebe and Lord Birchwood were irrelevant.
Surely, they have nothing to do with Betula.
Again, Sebastian sifted through the documents, this time searching expressly for Birchwood’s name. It took some time, but he found it three more times.
Unlike some of the others, his debt had not been cleared quickly, and Sebastian’s stomach tightened when he saw the figures.
How can one man owe so much money?
Even though Sebastian had never felt obligated to trust or even like Lord Birchwood before, he was suddenly filled with a profound sense of loathing.
Birchwood means to marry Lady Phoebe and then…then she will have an equal share in his debt and shame. No man will ever be able to repay such a sum. The Marquess will be destitute before long and who knows what will happen to him then?
The thought was abhorrent.
His stomach roiled and his head spun, but now that Sebastian had finally made some headway, he could not stop himself from seeking further answers.
He ran his finger down the long list of names and stopped when he spotted one that made his blood run cold.
Lord Tripleton.
Sebastian gulped, swallowing the acrid taste of bile that rose in his gullet.
Lady Phoebe is being passed from one scoundrel to the next.
His eyes darted across the page, and he gasped when he saw the sum that had been scribbled parallel to Lord Tripleton’s name.
Good God!
A horrible feeling spread through Sebastian, and before he knew it, he was tapping rapidly on the desk to keep his hands busy, a fidgeting action he had not really done since he was a boy livingwith his father who had frayed his nerves and confidence each day.
“Why? Why would her father do this?”
Sebastian’s hand shook as he picked up his quill and wrote down the amount the Earl of Tripleton owed on a clean bit of the scroll. He stared at the lengthy list of zeroes and nearly wept.
“Never… never will either of these men be able to repay what they owe. It is almost unmanageable. Not alone. Not without help. Not without…”
He paused and stared at the numbers. Then, his eyes flicked back to the ledger where both Birchwood and Tripleton appeared.
“Lady Phoebe,” he whispered to himself. His fists clenched. “Tripleton and Birchwood have entered into an agreement with one another. They will combine their funds, share what remains of their wealth and Lady Phoebe will be more than the tie that binds them. Once she is Lord Birchwood’s wife…”
He could not bring himself to spell out completely what future he feared laid waiting for the lovely little lady with the curious blue eyes.
During their time together, she had not said much about her parents, but he had seen the way they treated her at public functions. If they did not ignore her completely, Lord and LadyTripleton thrusted her into the limelight, insisting that she be admired, and causing her cheeks to flame scarlet while she stumbled over her words.
His indignation had risen before, when he thought they were nothing more than an obnoxious pair of social climbers, seeking to use their daughter’s quiet obedience, good manners, and attractiveness to gain notoriety. But now that he knew what they were really playing at, giving her to Lord Birchwood so that their families could form an alliance and work together to pay off their enormous debts, Sebastian was incensed.
